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Barbara Mowry, John Sherman elected to Kauffman Foundation Board

KANSAS CITY, Mo., (April 25, 2013) – The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation today announced that two individuals with deep knowledge and experience in both business and education have joined the Foundation's Board of Trustees. Barbara Mowry, chief executive officer of GoreCreek Advisors in Greenwood Village, Colo., and chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, was elected along with John Sherman, chairman and chief executive officer of Kansas City-based Inergy, L.P. and Inergy Midstream, L.P.

"Barbara and John are entrepreneurs and business leaders of the highest caliber who also have a broad range of experience and working knowledge in the education sector," said Jan Kreamer, chairman of Kauffman's Board of Trustees. "We are very fortunate to have found two individuals whose skills, experience, interests and commitment align so closely with Ewing Kauffman's desire to help individuals attain economic independence by advancing education and entrepreneurship."

Barbara Mowry

Barbara Mowry is an experienced business executive and entrepreneur, having served as the CEO of four firms and as a senior officer of several Fortune 500 companies. She has led enterprises through rapid growth and guided international expansion. Before founding GoreCreek in 2011, she was senior vice president at Oracle, president and chief executive officer of Silver Creek Systems, chairman and chief executive officer at Requisite Technology, senior vice president of customer satisfaction at Comcast, founder and chief executive officer of the Mowry Company and a vice president of United Airlines.

In addition to her position as chairman of the Kansas City Federal Reserve, Mowry serves on the boards of directors of Gaiam, Real Goods Solar, the University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business and the International Women's Forum. She also is a member of the board of overseers of the Carlson School at the University of Minnesota and is on the advisory board for the Center for Social Responsibility at the University of Colorado. Formerly, she was a member of the University of Michigan Zell Lurie Entrepreneurship board and the Colorado Governor's Commission on Science and Technology.

Among her many national honors, Mowry was named one of 50 Women in the U.S. to Watch by Business Week in 1987 and one of Advertising Age's 100 Best and Brightest Women in Advertising and Marketing in 1988. In 2000, she was the recipient of the University of Michigan School of Business "Women in Leadership" Award.

John Sherman

A successful Kansas City entrepreneur and civic leader, John Sherman founded his first startup, LPG Services, in 1991. LPG quickly became one of the nation's largest wholesale propane marketers before it merged with Dynegy in 1996. That same year, Sherman founded Inergy, which went public in 2001. Under his leadership, Inergy has executed a growth strategy that took it from a standing start to more than $2 billion in revenue. Today, Inergy is among the largest independent natural gas storage operators in the United States and a major developer and operator of energy infrastructure.

Sherman serves on the board of Great Plains Energy, Inc. He also serves on numerous nonprofit boards, including the Truman Presidential Library Institute, the University of Missouri-Kansas City Foundation, Teach For America Kansas City and the Civic Council of Greater Kansas City. He is a trustee of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, MRIGlobal and St. Paul's School. A dedicated education advocate, he focuses his philanthropic efforts on narrowing the educational opportunity gap for the underserved.

The recipient of numerous honors, Sherman was named an Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young. In 2009, he was named Entrepreneur of the Yearby UMKC's Bloch School of Business and the Council for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. In 2012, he received the Hope Award from the National MS Society for his philanthropic work in the Kansas City area.

With the addition of Mowry and Sherman, the Kauffman board consists of 10 trustees.